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THE team from automotive research and car shopping site CarGurus have become regulars at CDX, with appearances on the main stage and a presence across the show becoming a must for the company.

This year, CarGurus will be looking to tackle one of the biggest problems in the current market – Attribution.

Working out exactly where your dealership should be visible in the digital marketplace is tough.

CarGurus is hoping to help people looking to improve their digital marketing presence with a workshop at CDX.

CarGurus said: ‘Our workshop will be focused on understanding how today’s multi-device, multi-channel shopping process creates an urgent need for multi-touch attribution. We’ll show why the old ways won’t cut it, and how multi-touch can change your approach to digital marketing.

‘We’ll also be including recent consumer research on how today’s UK shoppers are changing to a web-first, mobile-centric pattern of behaviour.’

In marketing, like so many facets of the industry, there is an ever-present generational gap, in terms of thinking and approach. Some independent dealers are behind the curve with their digital marketing, and while some are that way by choice, others simply don’t know where to start – CarGurus hopes to help the latter in particular.

‘It’s never too late,’ the company said. ‘We know that more and more auto researching is being done online, before shoppers ever contact a dealer, so those who aren’t taking advantage of digital marketing are missing a massive audience. And demographics are against those holdouts – younger buyers are not only doing the vast majority of their shopping on digital, they’re doing it on mobile.

‘That said, late adopters don’t need to go all-in on a massive digital overhaul all at once.

‘One of the great benefits of the attribution techniques we’re covering in our workshop is that they let you see exactly what the real ROI is across all your marketing – and that makes it easy to invest in a new channel for a few months, carefully measure the impact, and decide if that channel is worthwhile.’

But, in their opinion, what are the most common mistakes that are a detriment to ROI?

‘One of the most common mistakes is using the old-fashioned ‘‘last-touch’’ attribution model. We know that consumers bounce around from site to site, and saying that the last ad or website they encountered before filling out a form is the only one that gets credit for a lead or a sale is just plain wrong. ROI models that show you all the sites and ads that contribute to a sale are much more representative of the true value of your marketing investment.

‘In the US, where attribution models are a little more advanced, we don’t see many dealers making decisions based on anecdotal ‘‘well, customers tell me…’’ evidence any more. That kind of “feel’’ or “gut’’ decision is notoriously inaccurate, as customers aren’t always accurate about their influences, and confirmation bias tends to make dealers hear what they already think.’

Join the CarGurus workshop at CDX for more on how to make the right steps forward for your digital marketing strategy, and optimise your return on investment.

Our picture shows CarGurus’ Sam Zales speaking on the Live Stage at CDX last year